Metal News for March 22, 2007

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27 news articles posted on this day.

Arch Enemy are pleased to be able to announce the return of original guitarist Christopher Amott. The band, having finished an intense 18-month touring cycle all over the world promoting the Doomsday Machine album and Live Apocalypse DVD, are currently busy working on songs for their new studio album.

Christopher surprised many by departing Arch Enemy at the end of the Doomsday Machine recording sessions in 2005, having been in the band for 10 years (starting with Arch Enemy at age 18). Christopher followed his urges to see the world and find what else is out there apart from music. Having done that, the time is now right for him to return to the fold with a newly injected desire and focus and to resume his career.

Christopher states, "This is very exciting for me, returning to Arch Enemy as a fulltime member! Right now we are working on our forthcoming album, and I'm very pleased about the way it's turning out. The new songs are fast and furious with lots of melody! To all the people who sent me kind messages while I was out of the band, thank you for your support; it helped me a lot. After this (much needed) two-year break, I'm looking forward to getting back on the road. I hope to see you all later this year!" More...

In a recent interview with The All Knowing Force, Flaw front-man Chris Volz stated that former Fuse VJ Mistress Juliya as the cause of the bands breakup in 2004. Volz claims Juliya brainwashed former bassist Ryan Juhrs by introducing him to his idols which lead to the split.

Juliya called into the show on March 13th, along with Juhrs current band-mates in Black Market Hero, where she stated that Volz comments were drug and alcohol induced and accused him of being a woman beater.

LIGHT THIS CITY recently completed shooting the band's debut music video with director Soren (Unearth) outside of Los Angeles, and now the clip is available online at Prosthetic Record's YouTube page. To check out the video for the song "The Unwelcome Savior," head over to YouTube or MySpace or view it on the article detail here.

"It was an amazing experience," the band previously stated, "and we felt honored to work with someone who has so much experience capturing the intensity of this style of music. What we saw of the video looked stunning, and we can't wait for it to make its online and television debut!"

The clip comes from the band's most recent offering, 'Facing The Thousand,' released last fall. Recorded with producer Zack Ohren (Animosity, All Shall Perish) at Castle Ultimate Studios in Emeryville, Calif. and featuring artwork from RobotPlague's Mario Garza (Suicide Silence, Through The Eyes of the Dead, He Is Legend), the record is the follow-up to 2005's Prosthetic Records debut, 'Remains of the Gods.'

Currently gearing up for a handful of headlining shows on the way out to New York, LIGHT THIS CITY will meet up with Horse The Band, The Number 12 Looks Like You and So Many Dynamos for the "School of Rock Tour," while another tour for the band is being lined up for the early summer.

Several audio samples from W.A.S.P.'s upcoming CD, "Dominator", have been posted online at this location. Due in the U.K. on April 16, Scandinavia on April 20, and the rest of mainland Europe on April 27 via Demolition Records, "Dominator" (view cover here) will feature the following track listing:

01. Mercy02. Long, Long Way To Go03. Take Me Up04. The Burning Man05. Heaven’s Hung In Black06. Heaven’s Blessed07. Teacher08. Heaven’s Hung In Black (Reprise)09. Deal With The Devil

The LP will be released in three versions: a standard single CD package, a limited-edition digipack, and limited-edition vinyl. More...

Forgotten Empire Records has announced the signing of UK-based experimental/metal band Purge. The label goes on to describe them: "Purge play an aggresive mix of rock and experimental metal. Think Zozobra and early Mastodon with the melodic sense of "Absense Of Truth" era Isis."

Purge are currently working on there yet titled full length. Recording will begin in April, the band hopes for a release around September. A number of guests are expected to be playing on various tracks. Forgotten Empire will release this effort in the US.

You can hear some material from the band's last EP "With/Without" on their MySpace page.

In line with the Finland Fest, taking place in Tokyo, Apocalyptica will perform an exclusive show. Finland Fest in Tokyo is an opportunity to meet representatives from 26 top Finnish music companies: Labels, publishers and agents are bringing forth the abundant talents in pop, rock, electronic, world music and metal. Along with the music trade event at JETRO on Friday, May 24th, Finland Fest in Tokyo will ship nine top Finnish bands to Japan's capital for intense showcase performances in and Liquid Room, Pit Inn and Buddy.

Dead Mens Dreams post two new songs on their myspace page along with the following update:

"The Dead are pleased to communicate 2 new tracks from their forthcoming debut album titled; The Dead Are Dreaming.

The title track "The Dead are Dreaming" and DMD's version of the Motley Crue classic "Shout At The Devil" are now available to the living.

Dead Mens Dreams-The Dead Are Dreaming was recorded at Erik Rutan's Mana Recording Studio in St Petersburg FL, produced by Brian Elliot (CELLADOR, ABSENCE, SOILENT GREEN), and Mastered by Alan Douches (UNEARTH, SHADOWS FALL), A summer 2007 release date is planned and the track listing is as follows:

A.D.The Dead are DreamingMachines Will Take Our SoulsMark My TracksStalked By the DeadBlack Hearts BeatShout at the DevilPuzzles of a DaydreamThe Deceased's First ReactionScreaming at Darkness07162083LandmassTerminus

Dead Mens Dreams will be playing select dates before embarking on a full U.S. tour this summer. The first date will be Saturday April 21, 2007 @ The Backstage Lounge (formerly Eddie C's) in Gainesville, Florida"

German metalcore band Maroon have issued the following statement regarding the cancellation of their planned South American tour - the first in four years:

"Due to many many different reasons, Marcos, the promotor of the tour and we as a band, have to cancel our South America Tour in April. We feel very sorry about that because we were very excited to visit South America again after our last stop there 4 years ago.

"It would be too much to talk about the reasons for this cancellation here. We just wanted to let you know, that everybody who is involved in the planning of this tour tried everything to rescue the tour!The smooth and satisfying order of events was just not guaranteed anymore in the end! Some Problems occurred which could not be solved and so we had to make this decision!

"Once again we want to let you all know how very sorry we feel about these turn of events! Especially the very late cancellation! But that wasn't our fault! We also got informed just now about the problems that occured.

"We hope to make up for the tour as soon as possible, maybe allready this year! We want you to know that we see this as a postponement rather than a cancelletion! So, see you all soon somewhere in South America!"

Roadrunner Records artists DAATH and 3 INCHES OF BLOOD have now been added to the Jagermeister sponsored 2nd Stage. Three more 2nd Stage bands are set to be announced, along with one final Main Stage artist.The most up to date list of confirmed bands to be revealed for this years OZZFEST 2007 are as follows:

Far Beyond Driven's currently in studio recording their long awaited debut release "Reflections of Humanity". The album is going to feature 9 of the bands most brutal songs and is expected to release mid 2007.

"We've been playing these songs live now for close on a year, and now we get to rediscover them on a musical level while recording", says bassist Willie Prins, in an on-line forum. The album promises to capture the essence and energy of the band's live show, and for any one that was at Woodstock 8, you would have seen the chaos first hand.

"We're going for a raw sound, not looking for the over produced, layered sound. It's got to sound like the band's in the room with you" says guitarist David Callaghan on a TuksFM interview, airing on the 25th of March around 6pm.

Witchdoctor records further explains: "Although it being the bands first release, one can still expect awesome musicianship from this highly skilled and experienced band. "Reflections of Humanity" is going to be aggressive, driven and the bands way of saying "We're here, and we're here to stay." Touching on political and social issues as well as personal battles with life, death and everything in between; the idea is for everyone to be able to relate to at least one, if not all, of the songs."

The Album Track Listing (in no particular order) is as follows:

Son of WarWhite DovesBury YourselfReflections of HumanityNever SubmitIllusions of TruthHappy EndingCover Your EyesYou Bleed for No Cause

WITH PASSION, are preparing to hit the road with ISCARIOT, THE ABSENCE and ARCHITECT, for a full national tour. WITH PASSION have added selected east coast dates to the tour - vowing to slay each performance with scaling metallic shards of their sophomore Earache release, “What We See When We Shut Our Eyes.”

WITH PASSION have also completed filming for a music video of the first single off of What We See When We Shut Our Eyes, “Pale Horses Ride,” which is slated to be released for viewing at the end of March.

WITH PASSION will continue their road trip on a supporting spring tour with VITAL REMAINS and LIGHT THIS CITY. WITH PASSION will also be featured in the premier episode of RADIUM, an alt-porn music program directed by SOCIETY 1 front man, Matt Zane which will feature a full interview live from the annual California Music Festival. WITH PASSION will kick off the ISCARIOT/ARCHITECT tour on March 24th and will be on the road until April 27th.

"Armageddon Music have signed Blitzkrieg. The band is just finishing the new album called "Theatre Of The Damned" in the Absurd Studio in Hamburg, together with producer Schroedey. The Album will be co-produced by Biff Byford (Saxon). The band visited with Armageddon Labelmanager Sabina Classen at the Saxon Show last Thursday in Hamburg, Markethall.

Blitzkrieg is a band, which helped to start, how we hear Metal today, and is now back with a contempary classic Blitzkrieg record with songs, which will blow your mind. The new album is with a fresh sound of the year 2007, but maintance the essence of true british metal on it absolute best. The album will be released on 27th, July 2007and the band will also play live at Wacken Open Air 2007 on Thursday for the "A Night To Remember" show along with Headliner Saxon. More Infos will follow soon, on the Armageddon Music website."

Willowtip Records‘ ODIOUS MORTEM have announced the addition of their new bassist, Ivan Munguia:

“Ivan (ex-Carnivorous) has been a friend of ours for years, we’re happy to have him jamming with us. We’re are are currently setting some California shows around the release of the new CD (April/May). Dates will be posted soon!”

You can check out some songs off the band’s upcoming new album, Cryptic Implosion, over at their official MySpace page.

BBC News reports that the drummer with heavy metal band IRON MAIDEN has been banned from driving after being caught speeding on the M74 motorway near Lockerbie, Scotland.

Michael McBrain — known to fans as Nicko — was clocked doing 116mph.

The 54-year-old from London pleaded guilty to the offense by letter. He was banned from the roads for six months and fined £500 (approximately $982).

Dumfries Sheriff Court heard that the veteran rocker was unable to appear because he was on tour.

Back in July 2003 McBrain was arrested for allegedly hitting a parking lot attendant — on purpose — with his black Jaguar after a disagreement over McBrain's VIP credentials before a concert at Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, New York. "It's one of those things that happened that shouldn't have happened, but it did, and over time, you sort of look at it and go, 'Gosh, that was silly,'" Nicko said in an August 2004 interview. "And the other guy that was involved with it, I'm sure he's sitting there thinking [the same thing]."

Norman, Oklahoma-based grindcore act EXITIUM has officially called it quits. The group's statement on the matter reads as follows:

"We regret to report that EXITIUM is toast. Don't bother asking why. Thanks to everyone who's shown support over the years, all of the bands we've played with, all the venues, all the promotors, and anyone who's put us up for the night. We especially want to thank Graham and Courtney Landers at Deepsend Records for everything they've done for us. The new album will be recorded and at least released for free online, but hopefully pressed. B-sides will most likely be included. Merch is still available from us or Deepsend. Contact us for cheap deals on CDs or T-shirts. We all look forward to new projects, so if anyone is interested in picking up wayward musicians for absolutely any genre, hit us up. Any one of us is possibly willing to relocate. Thanks again. Nice talk, see you out there."

Into Eternity issue the following update about being part of the Metal for the Masses tour:"Hello Everyone!

It feels great to be back on the road. Now we our rolling in our new RV, so we have a home on wheels. We did a quick 4 shows on the way down to start the tour. Winnipeg was killer, but it was -20 out! In St.Paul we played with a cool King Diamond cover band. The promoter Nathan owned a movie theater, so he set up a private viewing of the movie 300. It was the first time that ever happened! After 2 more killer shows in Milwaukee and Nashville, we headed to warm Florida. Orlando and St.Petersburg were both great cities. Thank you to the fans who brought the Canadian flag in St.Pete, maybe next time we acn do an encore for you all! It was a great way to start the tour. The Haunted and Dark Tranquility are both killer bands and really nice people. I think this is going to be a really amazing tour for us! Tonight is Atlanta and the shows here always rule! See you all soon. Keep it metal!

"As you all might know now Vanmakt is releasing the debut album "Vredskapta Mörkersagor" on Pulverised Records in a couple of months. Were only awaiting the booklet layout from Jeremy at Gojira Design before we can get a final release date. Everything else is finished and I got the reference Cd from Peter In De Betou today and well, the album sounds incredibly good! Peter has given the album another dimension and I'm totally blown away when I compare my mix and his final mastering! Your going to hear it soon, that's a promise! But more about that later, the reason for this update is simple, I want to give you guys the final track list and this is how it looks!"

"On the song entitled "Open The Gates" I'm joined by Jonas Renvaktar "Spawn Of Possession, Disruption" and on the song entitled "En Mardröm, En Strid, Ett Helvete" Im joined by Hebbe (Gjallar) "Skald, At Dawn" who has written the 2 Swedish lyrics as well.

"I would like to tell you all about my other project "Nidrike" as well, where I'm joined by Gjallar from Skald, At Dawn as the main lyrical writer. At this moment there's vocalist from all over Sweden that's trying out to fill the spot of fronting the band and I hope to have some news regarding that in a close future. If your interested in listening to the Pre-Recorded songs of "Nidrike", check this link: www.myspace.com/Nidrike.

"Well, that's about it, check our blog at www.myspace.com/Vanmakt for more news and info!"

Atlanta, Georgia's Becoming The Archetype has completed work on their upcoming Solid State Records debut, titled "The Physics of Fire." Produced by Rob Caggiano (Bleeding Through) this past winter, mixing was finished earlier this month and mastering is currently underway. The album will hit stores on May 8th. Here is the final track listing:

01. Epoch of War02. Immolation03. Autopsy04. The Great Fall05. Nocturne06. The Monolith07. Construct and Collapse08. Endure09. Fire Made Flesh10. Second Death11. The Balance of Eternity

In related news, Becoming The Archetype will shoot a video on April 7th for the track "Endure." The video will be directed by Endeavor Media (Dead Poetic) and should surface later this spring.

Massachusetts metalcore act Pictures Of Winter has signed with Redemptive Records out of Springfield, MA. The label will release the band's new seven song EP, entitled In Memory Of You, later this spring.

Cynic has apparently backed out of their previous announced performance slated for this year's Maryland Deathfest. Here's a statement from festival organizers:

"The rumours going around about Cynic cancelling their appearance at Maryland Deathfest are true. As the organisers of the event, we will state everything that happened as accurately and as truthfully as possibly. All of the necessary steps to confirm Cynic through their agency were taken by us and they were confirmed on November 21, 2006 as the band agreed on our original offer. We were given a definite green light to announce Cynic on the MDF website also in November and all parties involved have known about the scheduled appearance of Cynic at the festival for 4 months.

Between December and March there were numerous attemps from our side to contact both the band directly as well as their agency, but each attempt resulted in absolutely no reply or further information given to us. Part of the agreement was that we would pay for the band's flights in advance, but we never even received a reply about it each time we tried contacting the band to arrange the flights. Finally we received a sign of life from Cynic's agency in March asking for us to complete some information fact sheet to help assist them in completing the contract accurately. Shortly after rumours started going around that the band will not be playing the festival as we were not the first people to be informed of such an issue. After writing both the band and agency to get some kind of explanation about what is going on, we still have not received a legit reason and the band didn't even offer a personal message to deliver to the fans who have planned to travel to the festival to see them. They simply forwarded us an e-mail from their agency that said, "unfortunately Cynic will not be playing the festival". We received a very vague answer on the phone from their agency that was simply a waste of time and the agency acted like they don't know why the band is cancelling. We don't believe that one bit, so at this point we don't even care to know the real reason that the band cancelled.

We'll leave it to the fans of Cynic to formulate their own opinion about the matter. An agreement was made by all parties 4 months ago, the green light was given to announce the band, but they suddenly cancel 2 months before the festival without a legit explanation. The lack of communication by both the band and agency is extremely frustrating for us and not how we prefer to deal with any band that performs at MDF. We aren't magicians or psychics and can only report the facts about what happened from our side. We understand that some people will be extremely frustrated by this news and you can believe us that we are just as frustrated as anyone. If you want to express your displeasure regarding this issue, please direct it to the band and not us as this has nothing to do with how we handled everything.

As a result of the cancellation, one additional band will be confirmed in the near future. It will not be a band of headlining status and we anticipate pushing up Zyklon one space to headline the second night. Stay tuned for more on that."

Following a lengthy search, The Black Dahlia Murder has announced the addition of drummer Shannon Lucas to their line-up. Lucas has previously done time in All That Remains, among other bands. Here's a statement from the group:

"Well, after 4 and a half months of grueling searching we are extremely happy to announce that Shannon Lucas has joined the Black Dahlia fold. He is an extremely sick player, as many of you already know, and we can't wait to do the next album together. We also would like to thank everyone that tried out for the band, we had the chance to jam with some amazing dudes throughout the process."